[North Eveleigh] REDWatch People and Place meeting Tues 10 Feb and background / Summer on the Green / Metro SIA / Gai Smith / Development Coordination Authority consultation

Tue Feb 3 13:35:51 AEDT 2026

Dear REDWatch members, supporters and agencies,

REDWatch Feb meeting now Tuesday 10 Feb

Summer on the Green – Friday 6 February 2pm-5pm

People and Place Plan: What’s next? – REDWatch 10th February 6pm

What is the Waterloo South People and Place Plan?

Waterloo Metro Social Impact Assessment Concerns

Death of Gai Smith

Establishing the Development Coordination Authority – by 25th Feb
Please note – this email contains hyperlinks. This means that if you see a blue underlined word or phrase that you can click on it and go directly to a document or to get more information.
REDWatch Feb meeting now Tuesday 10 Feb
Please note that to accommodate speakers, the February 2026 REDWatch meeting has changed from the usual REDWatch meeting on 5th February to the following week on Tuesday 10 February. We know this clashes with some other community meetings and we will record the session so some people don’t miss out.
Summer on the Green – Friday 6 February 2pm-5pm
Come along and join the fun at Counterpoint’s annual Summer on the Green at the corner of Raglan and George Streets Waterloo. This is a good opportunity to come along, meet others, talk to services and have fun. Activities include rides for kids, community stalls, entertainment, games, food stalls and a sausage sizzle.
City of Sydney will be providing drop-off bins for small electronics, batteries, vapes, light bulbs & blister packs.
People and Place Plan: What’s next? – REDWatch 10th February 6pm
Homes NSW released its People and Place recommendations to deliver the new mixed community just before Stockland started its Concept Plan consultations late 2025. At the time the focus was on the Stockland so there was not time to have a discussion about the important issues in Homes NSW’s Waterloo South People and Place Plan.
On Tuesday 10th February 2026 we invite you to join REDWatch, Homes NSW and the Consortium for a community session unpacking the Waterloo South People and Place Plan.  We will explore what’s in the plan, is it enough, and how will it be delivered?
You can join the discussion in person from on 10 February from 6:00pm – 7.30pm at Counterpoint’s Factory Community Centre, 67 Raglan Street, Waterloo or join us on line by Zoom http://tinyurl.com/RedwatchMeetingZoom.
What is the Waterloo South People and Place Plan?
Following the exhibition of the 2022 Waterloo South planning controls, Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) proposed an integrated people and place framework to inform the prospective renewal partners, as well as a relocations and support plan in 2023. The plan was to bring together precinct outcomes, relocations planning, human services, social sustainability, placemaking, outcomes for Aboriginal people as well as aspects of procurement.
A draft plan was made available for comment in April 2024 and raised lots of concerns about its adequacy, especially its lack of integration between the redevelopment and the rest of the estate, and how the plan would integrate with the existing Waterloo Human Services Action Plan.
The final plan was released in October 2025 with previous “actions” being downgraded to “recommendations” and many recommendations watered down. Questions currently surround the status of the plan, how it might be resourced and implemented, how gaps might be addressed and how it integrates with the Waterloo Human Services Plan, Homes NSW Tenant Participation, Homes NSW Tenant Management and the direction of the “Renewal Partner” that is responsible for leading most action alongside Homes NSW.
How the redevelopment delivers on the people aspects of the redevelopment and how this integrates with what is happening on the rest of the estate are very important issues. Just building new buildings and places does not build successful inclusive communities. Active placemaking, human service supports and delivering on the people centred outcomes are crucial to the success of the redevelopment project and how it interacts with the rest of the surrounding public housing community.
The People and Place Plan is very high level and needs to be made more concrete. Its 78 recommendations cover a wide range of issues / deliverables that interact, including: community governance, precinct management, social housing management, communications, events, community development, human service planning, relocations, tenant participation, Aboriginal involvement, learning, employment and enterprise: as well as outcomes to be put in place by development applications, the Consortium and Homes NSW. Many of the recommendations cover a number of the areas listed above making analysis and implementation unclear.
Depending how you slice and dice the recommendations, between 20% and 50% can relate to the Waterloo Human Services Plan and 50% relate to areas covered by development applications. Almost 40% of the recommendations have a governance element to them and are dependent on how Recommendation 1.1 is implemented, which says "Engage stakeholders and develop clear community governance arrangements which support and enable collaboration between a wide range of organisations." This is what the Waterloo Human Service Collaborative has been doing within the human service area, but People and Place is wider than that. The Collaborative is looking at what areas of People and Place it should incorporate into its existing plan.
Since the release of the People and Place Plan we have not heard anything further from Homes NSW or the Consortium about this plan, its status, how it will be funded and implemented. No one seems to be responsible for delivering the plan. We have also not heard how the recommendations might be refined to agreed actions and how that decision might be made in line with recommendation 1.1 above. Nor have we heard how the aspirations in the plan will be guaranteed.
These are some of the questions we hope Homes NSW and the consortium partners will be able to explain at the REDWatch meeting. Under the plan, Homes NSW is proposed to lead about 60% of the actions and the Redevelopment Partner about 80% with the support of other agencies.
The People and Place Plan<https://www.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/noindex/2025-10/waterloo-south-people-and-place-plan-2025.pdf> can be found on the Homes NSW Waterloo redevelopment site. You can see REDWatch initial analysis of people and Place<http://www.redwatch.org.au/RWA/Waterloo/stage1/251020pnpredw> (including the changes made to the “actions” between the 2024 consultation draft and the final version<http://www.redwatch.org.au/RWA/Waterloo/stage1/251019pnpredw>) on the REDWatch website.
Waterloo Metro Social Impact Assessment Concerns
In the lead up to the end of the Waterloo Metro Quarter exhibition we highlighted the proposed reduction of community facilities space by 994sqm which we had initially missed as it was not covered in the proposal text. We are pleased to see that there were others in the community that thought this was an appalling idea and made submissions also covering this.
The proposal also wants all remaining facilities space be used only for childcare even though its Social Impact Assessment (SIA) found the development did “not create sufficient demand for a new childcare facility” and misreported surrounding childcare services.
There were also other major problems in the study’s Social Impact Assessment (SIA) which failed to consider “how different groups will experience social impacts differently” as required by Planning NSW’s guidelines. Instead, this SIA averaged results from around the site and only compared these to the rest of Sydney. The area averaged included some of the most advantaged and some of the most disadvantaged areas as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The SIA failed to assess how the project impacts public housing tenants as a “vulnerable and marginalised group”.
You can see the detail of our concerns in the REDWatch’s Submission<https://majorprojects.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/prweb/PRRestService/mp/01/getContent?AttachRef=SUB-103869206%2120260115T075910.100%20GMT>. REDWatch asked Planning to request a supplementary SIA from the developer, but Planning’s letter to the proponent did not make this request. REDWatch has now formally requested Planning to obtain a peer review of the original SIA and any additional SIA information in the proponent’s Response to Submission to make sure the proposal adequately deals with the SIA issues that should inform the project.
While Planning strengthened its requirements for SIAs in 2025<https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/assessment/policies-and-guidelines/key-guidance/social>, developers often do not give them weight and expect “on the cheap” desk top reviews. As a result, SIAs often do not identify social impacts that need to be managed. In addition, those responsible for assessing proposals often have little understanding of SIA methodologies so do not identify or question inadequate SIAs, their findings and lack of recommendations for impact management.
If you want to find out more about some of the problems currently with SIAs and how they are used by developers and assessed by regulators we suggest you read Richard Parson’s Social impact assessment for project regulatory processes<https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap-oa/book/9781802208870/book-part-9781802208870-19.xml> which is chapter in an open access Handbook of Social Impact Assessment and Management<https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook-oa/book/9781802208870/9781802208870.xml>.
A recent article by Alison Ziller Social impact assessment: Treacherous waters for local communities<https://search.informit.org/toc/lglj/25/4> in the Local Government Law Journal (behind a paywall) is also well worth a read if you can access it via a Library or a work account.
Death of Gai Smith
We are saddened by the loss of Gai Smith a REDWatch member from the beginning and a strong social justice voice in the local area. Gai was active in the Redfern Residents for Reconciliation in the 1990s that supported the formation of REDWatch and has been an active member of the Women’s Reconciliation Network (WRN).
WRN will celebrate Gai’s completed life as a strong First Nations rights advocate in the Redfern community formally at its meeting on Thursday 26 February at Redfern Community Centre from 9:45am to 1:30pm.
Gai Smith’s Funeral is on 12 February 2026 at 11 am at Mother of Mercy Chapel, Rookwood.
Establishing the Development Coordination Authority – by 25th Feb
The NSW Government is seeking feedback on proposed changes to support the establishment of the new Development Coordination Authority (DCA) to provide a one-stop shop for expert inputs from the NSW Government on development applications and planning proposals.
Under the changes, DCA will provide a single front door to help homeowners, councils, developers and other users get in touch with the right part of the NSW government to resolve planning matters, eliminating the need to navigate up to 22 different areas across the NSW Government. The proposed changes are part of the overhaul of the State’s planning system.
The proposed changes will be on exhibition until 5pm on Wednesday, 25 February 2026. You can find further details Have your say: Establishing the Development Coordination Authority (DCA)<https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/draftplans/exhibition/have-your-say-establishing-development-coordination-authority-dca?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DCA+exhibition&utm_source=salesforce>
Regards,

Geoff
Geoffrey Turnbull
REDWatch Spokesperson
Ph Wk: (02) 8004 1490  Mob: 0418 457 392
email: spokesperson at redwatch.org.au<mailto:spokesperson at redwatch.org.au>
web: www.redwatch.org.au<http://www.redwatch.org.au/>
FB: www.facebook.com/RedfernEveleighDarlingtonWaterlooWatch/<http://www.facebook.com/RedfernEveleighDarlingtonWaterlooWatch/>

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